Men’s Premier A Harleston Magpies 13 Spalding 0 Harleston Magpies rattled in 13 unanswered goals to thrash Spalding and move within three points of Premier A leaders St Albans.

Home keeper Chris Leek made a vital stop early on before the versatile Matt Richardson broke the deadlock at the other end.

Sam Patterson, the self-titled league’s best flicker, added some credibility to his claim with a bulleted drag flick that flew in off the crossbar to double the lead.

Patterson shortly added his second goal as he showed excellent close control in the D to make room for himself to slide in from his reverse.

The goals continued to flow for Magpies as Archie Winter got in on the act, first almost knocking the Spalding keeper over with a vicious shot before following up his own short corner with a composed volley into the net for a 5-0 half-time lead.

After missing several first-half chances, Simon Hipwell finally added his name to the scoresheet as he followed in on a short corner. Patterson then completed his hat-trick to make it 7-0.

At this point in the game Harleston could have taken their foot of the gas but if anything they increased the energy further and continued to push for more goals.

The excellent Tom Sumner was commanding from the back, stepping in front of the opposition on numerous occasions to win the ball back and set the Magpies off on the attack.

Veteran defender Andrew Bedwell could only watch this man-of-the-match performance from the sidelines and must be worried at the emergence of this young, athletic talent.

With the midfield working tirelessly to build attack-after-attack, Dave Gilbert soon added two more goals for the Pies by showing a striker’s instinct to be in the right place at the right time.

Jake Sewell was quickest to respond after his first shot was saved to pounce on the rebound and ensure that he got a goal to reward his excellent play.

Jack Hobbs added two more goals to the Magpies tally as Harleston continued to pile on the pressure and the day’s scoring was completed as Sewell added his second with an excellent back post tap-in.

The Magpies travel to Bedford this weekend for what should be a very tightly contested game.